System and method of providing multiple installation actions

ABSTRACT

A system and method are presented for a suite integration toolkit (SIT) allowing for the provision and display of a rich set of installation actions. The user interface (UI) provides a list box interface having pull down menus for the display and selection of component defined installation actions. Preferably the SIT is used to install a suite of applications having multiple components and sub-components. These components and sub-components are displayed with the install action selected and disk space required displayed. The UI also provides a summation of the required disk space of only those components that will actually be installed, taking into consideration and excluding from the summation required components that are already installed. An interface method is implemented by each of the components to expose a method to allow the SIT to query the component for its available installation actions and results.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATION

[0001] This patent application is a continuation of co-pending U.S.patent application Ser. No. 09/565,927, filed May 5, 2000, entitled“System and Method of Providing Multiple Installation Actions”. Theentire teachings and disclosure of this patent application are herebyincorporated in their entireties by reference thereto.

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0002] This invention relates generally to systems and methods forinstalling application program suites and, more particularly, relates tothe number and type of install actions, and their availability,selection, and display.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0003] With the continued growth and specialization of various softwareapplications for both business and residential users, software originalequipment manufacturers (OEMs) and secondary value added providers(VAPs) have begun selectively combining these applications into suites.The selection of the particular applications to include in a suite ismade based on certain synergies desired to be achieved for a particularcustomer or group of customers. In this way a business customer, forexample, may purchase a single suite that provides all of theapplications to allow complete productivity for all of the functionsthat are normally performed in the business environment. This selectionand grouping process by the OEMs and/or the VAPs greatly simplifies thedecision process at the user level, and typically allows for a commonuser experience across applications since typically all applicationswill be from a particular OEM.

[0004] Another advantage provided by a suite of applications exists atthe system administration level. Unlike the requirement of having toseparately install and setup each individual application, entering thesame user information over and over for each application, theinstallation of a suite is much more integrated. Most suites employ aninstallation wizard of some sort that installs and sets up all of theapplications within the suite at one time. While this presents adistinct advantage over the individual application installation andsetup, the structure and content of modern suites present problems forcurrent installation processes that often result in confusion on thepart of the user.

[0005] While many suites comprise a group of separate applicationsbundled together forming, in essence, an aggregation of applications asdiscussed above, more advanced and sophisticated suites actuallycomprise a multitude of inter-dependent applications. Indeed, many ofthe application programs themselves are actually mini-suites of relatedor complementary applications integrally operating as a “single”application. Unfortunately, these mini-suites present additionalproblems that add to the user confusion.

[0006] One problem lying at the core of the user confusion relates tothe type of installation actions available through the conventionalinstallation programs, and the presentation of these options to the uservia the conventional check-box user interface (UI). Traditional setupapplications, such as that illustrated in FIG. 10 and FIG. 11, provide auser interface that shows a set or list of the components in the suitein a window 500 or list box. Next to each of the components of the suiteis a small check box 502 or area that illustrates the selection ordeselection of that component. Typically, a check mark is illustratednext to each component that will be installed in the defaultinstallation scenario.

[0007] This check box UI allows a user to decide which components shewants to install, and which components she does not want to install. Inthis situation, a check mark next to a component represents that thatcomponent will be installed (i.e. install component), and no check markrepresents that that component will not be installed (i.e. do nothing).Unfortunately, when the user wanted to remove a component that wasalready installed, the user would click on a component that has a checkmark next to it to remove the check mark. In this situation, a checkmark next to a component represents that that component is alreadyinstalled (i.e. do nothing), and no check mark represents that thatcomponent will be removed (i.e. uninstall component).

[0008] While such operation of current installation applications isfunctionally correct, the presentation and implementation can be a bitconfusing to users. This confusion becomes apparent, for example, insituations where one or more of the components or sub-componentsincluded in a new suite are already installed on the user's machine. Insuch a situation, when a user begins to setup and install the new suite,the installation application will detect the presence of thesecomponents and will place a check mark next to them in the UI. Theinstallation application, however, also places check marks next to thecomponents that are not currently installed, but that will be installedby the installation application. It is difficult, therefore, todetermine from the displayed check marks which components the user willbe installing and which components are already installed (in which caseno action would be taken on those components). It is possible for a userto interpret the check mark as an install command, realize that shealready has that component installed, believe that leaving the boxchecked will result in the re-installation of that component, and notwanting to re-install that component un-check the box. Unfortunately,this action will likely result in the component being removed from theuser's system because a non-checked box for an installed component isinterpreted by many install applications as an uninstall request asdescribed above.

[0009] Further, the check box interface used with most currentinstallation applications provides the ability to request only two typesof install actions. That is, the check box can be checked or not. Asdescribed above for a component that is not installed, the checksignifies that the component will be installed, and no check signifiesthat the installation application will not install the component (i.e.do nothing). Also as described above, if the component is alreadyinstalled, the check signifies that the installation application willleave the component installed (do nothing), and no check signifies thatthe installation application will uninstall the component. Someinstallation applications also provide a separate selectable option forcomponents that are already installed, to wit, reinstall. When thisadditional option is selected, typically a separate UI screen isdisplayed, such as that illustrated in FIG. 12, with additionalselectable options, such as “remove all” 504, “reinstall” 506, and“add/remove” 508. However, if only one or a few of the components needto be upgraded to a current version, the only option is to select“reinstall,” which will reinstall component that do not require anyupgrade. This may require a significant amount of time to complete.

[0010] As may be apparent from the above description of the currentcheck-box installation framework, the amount and types of installactions are limited to those described above. There is essentially noflexibility to add additional types of installation actions under thisframework, or to allow a component to define particularcomponent-specific actions to be performed. For example, components suchas e-mail applications that have large data stores often place thosestores on different drives than those on which the actual application isstored. In such situations, a disk failure for the application disk mayleave the data stores totally intact. Since the data stores may includeseveral hundred gigabytes of data, whereas the application may onlyrequire a few hundred megabytes, it is desirable to provide anadditional install action other than reinstall all, which would notrequire a migration of the data stores. Unfortunately, while suchprograms can provide a “forklift” or recovery option that would look forthe data store and only reinstall the application without requiring theuser to reconfigure the machine, no such additional action of this typeis allowed under the current check-box framework. Therefore, a usercould only choose “reinstall all,” which action would requirereconfiguration of the machine and migration of the data. Such actionstypically take several days to complete for most organizations.

[0011] Therefore, there exists a need in the art to overcome these andother problems existing with the current state of suite installationprograms. Specifically, there exists a need to present the installationactions to a user in a logical and easy to understand way that allowsthem to clearly see the state of the components affected, and whatactions will be performed. Further, there exists a need to allowcomponents to define custom installation actions and allow these customactions to be included at the installation application run time.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0012] The inventive concepts disclosed herein involve a new UIpresentation and additional available custom actions for an installationapplication, such as a Suite Integration Toolkit (SIT). The system ofthe invention significantly improves the user experience during aninstallation of a suite of components by providing a rich set of installactions for user selection and by providing feedback information whichis easy to understand.

[0013] The UI presentation and concepts behind the custom installactions of the instant invention solve the above identified and otherproblems by asking a component to provide a list of the install actionsthat it can support. Further, SIT recommends that the default actions(install, uninstall, and no action) be supported. The UI preferablypresents this list to an end-user in a listbox that is displayed foreach component upon selection of a drop-down arrow, allowing the user toselect whichever install action works best for her. However, the displayof this information may take other forms (or no UI allowing accessinstead via script). Additional information is conveyed to the userduring the installation process, such as whether or not components areinstalled already on the computer. This information is presented invarious forms, such as check marks, color differences, highlighting,etc.

[0014] The benefits of the instant invention are realized by having eachof the components implement an ISetupComponent interface. This interfaceexposes a method to allow another component or manager of the SuiteIntegration Toolkit (SIT) to query the component for a specificinterface, such as ISetuplnstallActionCollection. When this interface isqueried, it returns a list of the available actions for that component.These actions may include custom actions that have no meaning outside ofthat particular component. The component is given the ability to definethese custom actions, so long as the outcome thereof is provided to theSIT. Such actions may include, e.g., forklift, recovery, migrate,repair, etc. This extensibility of install actions in combination withthe new UI greatly improves the user experience and releases thecomponent constraints of prior installation applications.

[0015] Additional features and advantages of the invention will be madeapparent from the following detailed description of illustrativeembodiments that proceeds with reference to the accompanying figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0016] While the appended claims set forth the features of the presentinvention with particularity, the invention, together with its objectsand advantages, may be best understood from the following detaileddescription taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings ofwhich:

[0017]FIG. 1 is a block diagram generally illustrating an exemplarycomputer system on which the present invention resides;

[0018]FIG. 2 is a simplified architectural block diagram of anembodiment of the Suite Integration Toolkit of the instant invention;

[0019]FIG. 3 is a simplified process flow diagram illustrating the setupmanagement in accordance with a method of the instant invention;

[0020]FIGS. 4a-c are simplified process flow diagrams illustrating thebasic flow of a suite setup in accordance with a method of the instantinvention;

[0021]FIG. 5 is a screen shot illustration of a user interface (UI)constructed in accordance with the teachings of the instant invention;

[0022]FIG. 6 is a further screen shot illustration of the UI of FIG. 5illustrating a further aspect of the instant invention;

[0023]FIG. 7 is a screen shot illustration of a user interface (UI)constructed in response to an attempted dependency violation;

[0024]FIG. 8 is a screen shot illustration of the UI of FIG. 7 wherein auser has selected one of the affected components;

[0025]FIG. 9 is a screen shot illustration of a user interface (UI)displayed in response to user selection of a Details button on the UI ofFIG. 8;

[0026]FIG. 10 is a screen shot illustration of a prior installationapplication's check-box user interface (UI);

[0027]FIG. 11 is a screen shot illustration of an alternate priorinstallation application's check-box user interface (UI); and

[0028]FIG. 12 is a screen shot illustration of a prior installationapplication's user interface to support additional installation actions.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0029] Turning to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer tolike elements, the invention is illustrated as being implemented in asuitable computing environment. Although not required, the inventionwill be described in the general context of computer-executableinstructions, such as program modules, being executed by a personalcomputer. Generally, program modules include routines, programs,objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasksor implement particular abstract data types. Moreover, those skilled inthe art will appreciate that the invention may be practiced with othercomputer system configurations, including hand-held devices,multi-processor systems, microprocessor based or programmable consumerelectronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and thelike. The invention may also be practiced in distributed computingenvironments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices thatare linked through a communications network. In a distributed computingenvironment, program modules may be located in both local and remotememory storage devices.

[0030] With reference to FIG. 1, an exemplary system for implementingthe invention includes a general purpose computing device in the form ofa conventional personal computer 20, including a processing unit 21, asystem memory 22, and a system bus 23 that couples various systemcomponents including the system memory to the processing unit 21. Thesystem bus 23 may be any of several types of bus structures including amemory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus usingany of a variety of bus architectures. The system memory includes readonly memory (ROM) 24 and random access memory (RAM) 25. A basicinput/output system (BIOS) 26, containing the basic routines that helpto transfer information between elements within the personal computer20, such as during start-up, is stored in ROM 24. The personal computer20 further includes a hard disk drive 27 for reading from and writing toa hard disk, not shown, a magnetic disk drive 28 for reading from orwriting to a removable magnetic disk 29, and an optical disk drive 30for reading from or writing to a removable optical disk 31 such as a CDROM or other optical media.

[0031] The hard disk drive 27, magnetic disk drive 28, and optical diskdrive 30 are connected to the system bus 23 by a hard disk driveinterface 32, a magnetic disk drive interface 33, and an optical diskdrive interface 34, respectively. The drives and their associatedcomputer-readable media provide nonvolatile storage of computer readableinstructions, data structures, program modules and other data for thepersonal computer 20. Although the exemplary environment describedherein employs a hard disk, a removable magnetic disk 29, and aremovable optical disk 31, it will be appreciated by those skilled inthe art that other types of computer readable media which can store datathat is accessible by a computer, such as magnetic cassettes, flashmemory cards, digital video disks, Bernoulli cartridges, random accessmemories, read only memories, and the like may also be used in theexemplary operating environment.

[0032] A number of program modules may be stored on the hard disk,magnetic disk 29, optical disk 31, ROM 24 or RAM 25, including anoperating system 35, one or more applications programs 36, other programmodules 37, and program data 38. A user may enter commands andinformation into the personal computer 20 through input devices such asa keyboard 40 and a pointing device 42. Other input devices (not shown)may include a microphone, joystick, game pad, satellite dish, scanner,or the like. These and other input devices are often connected to theprocessing unit 21 through a serial port interface 46 that is coupled tothe system bus, but may be connected by other interfaces, such as aparallel port, game port or a universal serial bus (USB). A monitor 47or other type of display device is also connected to the system bus 23via an interface, such as a video adapter 48. In addition to themonitor, personal computers typically include other peripheral outputdevices, not shown, such as speakers and printers.

[0033] The personal computer 20 may operate in a networked environmentusing logical connections to one or more remote computers, such as aremote computer 49. The remote computer 49 may be another personalcomputer, a server, a router, a network PC, a peer device or othercommon network node, and typically includes many or all of the elementsdescribed above relative to the personal computer 20, although only amemory storage device 50 has been illustrated in FIG. 1. The logicalconnections depicted in FIG. 1 include a local area network (LAN) 51 anda wide area network (WAN) 52. Such networking environments arecommonplace in offices, enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets andthe Internet.

[0034] When used in a LAN networking environment, the personal computer20 is connected to the local network 51 through a network interface oradapter 53. When used in a WAN networking environment, the personcomputer 20 typically includes a modem 54 or other means forestablishing communications over the WAN 52. The modem 54, which may beinternal or external, is connected to the system bus 23 via the serialport interface 46. In a networked environment, program modules depictedrelative to the personal computer 20, or portions thereof, may be storedin the remote memory storage device. It will be appreciated that thenetwork connections shown are exemplary and other means of establishinga communications link between the computers may be used.

[0035] In the description that follows, the invention will be describedwith reference to acts and symbolic representations of operations thatare performed by one or more computer, unless indicated otherwise. Assuch, it will be understood that such acts and operations, which are attimes referred to as being computer-executed, include the manipulationby the processing unit of the computer of electrical signalsrepresenting data in a structured form. This manipulation transforms thedata or maintains it at locations in the memory system of the computer,which reconfigures or otherwise alters the operation of the computer ina manner well understood by those skilled in the art. The datastructures where data is maintained are physical locations of the memorythat have particular properties defined by the format of the data.However, while the invention is being described in the foregoingcontext, it is not meant to be limiting as those of skill in the artwill appreciate that various of the acts and operation describedhereinafter may also be implemented in hardware.

[0036] In accordance with the invention, a system and method arepresented that allows the addition and customization of install actionsdefinable by application components to be installed. Further, a new userinterface (UI) is presented that allows a logical and easilyunderstandable presentation of the current state and defined actionsavailable and selected for an installation application. This system isembodied in a Suite Integration Toolkit (SIT) and utilizes a commonarchitecture used for a setup database file (setup.sdb) to identifycomponents and their available actions to be performed during theinstallation and setup thereof. SIT complements, but does not replace,existing installer technology. SIT works as an integration layer fordisparate setups but does not perform core setup tasks such as filecopy, registry operations, etc., although it may be expanded to do so ifdesired.

[0037] In addition to addressing existing installation issues asdiscussed above, SIT also preferably provides a flexible and extensibleCOM layer for applications that want to hook into setup. This allowsthese applications to modify the UI, launch additional processes duringthe particular phases of setup, or install components that havepreviously been downloaded to a central directory on the local machine.While significant advantages are presented when SIT is COM based, oneskilled in the art will recognize that SIT may be programmed using othertechnology without departing from the scope or spirit of the teachingsherein.

[0038] To gain a better appreciation of the SIT of the instantinvention, attention is now directed to the simplified architecturalblock diagram of FIG. 2. While this FIG. 2 illustrates the SIT asfunctional blocks or objects, there is no intention to limit the scopeof the invention to such blocks or objects, or to any particulartechnology or programming methodology. Instead, this simplified diagramis presented by way of illustration to aid in the understanding of thelogical functionality of an aspect of the instant invention, and is notpresented by way of limitation.

[0039] The SIT includes a Setup Manager 79 that drives the installationprocess through the setup.sdb files for the suite. CD 81 and Disk 83Information Managers provide required information concerning filelocation, size, etc. for the suite CD(s) during the integration process,and for the user's system onto which the suite will be installed. Duringthe installation process, the Setup Manager 79 utilizes the services ofa Dependency Manager 85 to ensure that the required dependencies of theapplication programs within a suite are met. This ensures that theinstallation may proceed through each phase without error, and so thatthe application programs may run on the user's system once installed. AValidation Manager 87 is also used by the Setup Manager 79 to verifythat required system components needed by the suite are met by theuser's system for much the same reasons as for the Dependency Manager85. If an error is determined during either of these checks, it islogged by an Event and Error Logger 89.

[0040] During the installation process, the Setup Manager 79 alsoemploys the services of an UI Manager 91 to display the properinformation to the user as will be described in greater detail below.This UI Manager 91 may utilize a Template Manager 93 if it wants todisplay standardized pages provided with the SIT. The UI Manager 91 mayalso display any customized pages identified in the setup.sdb fileduring the installation and setup of the suite. During this installationand setup, the SIT may utilize a Scenario Factory 95 to install onlyselected application programs or components from the suite as selectedby a user or as pre-configured by the suite owner. The Change Folderobject 97 is used to change the installation folder for a component inthe suite. SIT may also employ an Account Manager 99 if required duringthe installation and setup process. The SIT 78 also includes a DetectionObject 101.

[0041] While not specifically illustrated in FIG. 2, SIT may include anintermediate layer (dll) that will enable integration of an applicationprogram which relies on a different installation and setup technology(e.g., Install Shield) into the suite. This intermediate layer will wrapthe application's installation technology and SIT. During installationand setup, SIT will command the component or application to install, andthe dll will launch the application's installation technology.

[0042] The installation and setup process of the instant invention isseamless from a user's perspective. The SIT determines all of theinformation requirements for each of the application programs to beinstalled. SIT then takes the superset of this information and buildsthe information queries for display to the user to collect the requiredinformation. This information is then distributed to each applicationthat requires it, i.e. all applications have access to the collectedinformation. In this way, a given piece of information is collected froma user only one time. If, however, a particular application does notaccept that information or otherwise requires different or contrary datafor the same piece of information, SIT generates an additionalinformation screen, the information from which will be delivered only tothe application that required the different data.

[0043] The installation process is actually divided into two primarystages: baseline and install. Baseline may include both a “suite”baseline and a “scenario” baseline, or the scenario baseline can berolled into the suite baseline if desired. The install stage of theinstant invention is divided into pre-install, install, and post-installactions on a component level. The Setup Manager 79 and UI Manager 91,two of the top-level objects of SIT, handle integration of the componentinstallations and the UI. The Dependency Manager 85 provides dependencychecking and install-order calculation and verification across allselected components as mentioned above. Suite owners who want to makeuse of a pre-defined set of SIT UI templates can use the TemplateManager 93 to load a Wizard page, passing in the required informationfor that template. One such template provided may be used for thedisplay and selection of component install actions as will be describedbelow in association with FIG. 5. Alternately, suite owners who requirecustom UI can write their own dialogs that are hosted in a Wizard frame(header w/title, description and small graphic and footer withnavigation buttons). In both cases, components and/or scenarios handlevalidation and error reporting for any user input.

[0044] A baseline is a requirement determined by the suite owner. Itconcerns what OS/applications must be on a user's machine beforeinstallation of the suite can begin. Suite baseline denotes the actionsnecessary to get the machine to the required state for the installationof an application or suite. This may include installation of a requiredOS, any SPs, hot fixes, or additional applications necessary for thecomponent or suite to install. Baseline install actions may or may notbe visible to the user (i.e. install hot fixes as hidden components). Bydefault, the UI Manager 91 displays start up screens to the user duringthis stage, including Welcome, Name/Organization, Password, productidentification (PID), and end user license agreement (EULA) screens. Allstartup screens can be shown/hidden as desired via a [Startup Sequence]section of the setup data file.

[0045] Each component must provide information on its (and any subcomponents) suite baseline requirements. If the suite baseline is notmet for a component, any requirements beyond the suite baseline areconsidered part of the scenario baseline and are displayed to the useron the Scenario Baseline page. If the user chooses not to install thescenario baseline components, Setup Manager 79 prevents the installationof the affected component/sub components. If the setup is unattended(hence the user does not know if the suite baseline has not been met),baseline components are installed silently. If this is not possible(i.e. due to baseline component install restrictions or baselinecomponent is not available), then a message is written out to the errorlog indicating why the install cannot proceed. If the setup is attendedand the Welcome page has been turned off in the setup data file, theWelcome page will still appear if the suite baseline has not been met.If the suite is checking for but not installing baseline components, andthe check indicates that the suite baseline has not been met, the userwill not be allowed to click on Next in the Welcome screen.

[0046] Suite baseline components may have dependent components. If thesedependent components have not been marked as suite baseline components,SIT sets them as baseline components and tries to install them. If SITcannot install the dependent components (and hence the suite baselinecomponent), SIT informs the user, logs the error, terminatesinstallation of the component which has a missing dependency, andcontinues with the rest of the installation. This is similar to the“debug and release” methodology. In this way, the entire suiteinstallation is not adversely affected by one failed component. Thedetails of the UI provided for this functionality in accordance with theteachings of the instant invention will be described below.

[0047] As an example of this dependency requirement and the resultantaccommodations that SIT makes, consider a suite with Program A, ProgramB, and Program C included therein. Now assume that Program B isdependent on Program C, i.e. Program B needs Program C for properoperation. SIT will detect this dependency and will install Program Cbefore Program B, even if this requires that the install order insetup.sdb be changed. If, for some reason, Program C cannot besuccessfully installed, or if Program C is simply not included on thesuite CD, SIT will inform the user that a required dependency ismissing, skip the installation of Program B, and continue with any otherinstallations remaining for the suite.

[0048] SIT also supports a scenario baseline. In instances where a userselects a scenario from a Scenario Selection page that has a higherbaseline than the entire suite (e.g. when a third-party adds a scenarioand does not update the suite baseline), SIT first checks the scenariobaseline for the selected scenario. Next, SIT informs the user ifscenario baseline has not been met. By default, SIT provides theScenario Baseline page that displays what components need to be on theuser's machine and what components are currently installed, similar tothe Welcome page used for communicating suite baseline requirements. Theuser can click Next to install the scenario baseline components andcontinue with the installation, click Cancel to exit setup, or clickBack to select a different scenario. Finally, SIT installs the scenariobaseline components if they are available.

[0049] With this basic understanding of installation process now inhand, attention is now directed to FIG. 3 for a more detailedexplanation of the integration and installation process driven by theSetup Manager 79 of SIT. Once the Setup Manager has been initiated 82,it then tracks where the component bits are located on the suite CDs(the CD layout) 84. It then loads 86 the setup data file (setup.sdb)that contains general installation information, including scenarios,display order of components, list of start-up and finish screens, etc.The UI Manager of SIT is then called 88 to display the suiteinstallation startup screens from which the UI Manager gathers andvalidates user input. The Setup Manager then installs 90 requiredbaseline components, and calls 92 the UI Manager to display progressinformation during baseline install (preferably, progress will bedisplayed during silent baseline as well). The UI Manager is then called94 to retrieve and display scenario information from components and/orfrom the [Scenarios] section in data file as discussed above.

[0050] Then, the Dependency Manager is called 96 to perform dependencychecking among the components that user has selected. This dependencychecking will be described more fully below. If any conflicts aredetected 98, the UI Manager is called 100 to display a Dependency UIscreen. The dependency UI will display what the perceived conflicts areand will allow the user to cancel the request which caused the problem,or to have SIT automatically set the Actions of the required componentsto a state which resolves the issue. Scenario data files provide asimple hook into setup for third-party users of the Setup Manager. TheSetup Manager also installs 102, when necessary, components needed toachieve the scenario baseline if it differs from the suite baseline.This may occur, e.g., when a third party modifies a scenario data file,but neglects to modify the setup data file. As a result, the scenariobaseline is no longer a subset of the suite baseline and requires theinstallation of additional components. The Setup Manager also launchespre-install 104, install 106, and post-install 108 loops and sendsmessages to components/sub components to perform actions during theseinstallation stages before the process terminates 110.

[0051] Third-party calls into this setup process are also supported inthe system of the instant invention. If desired, these third parties canhook in as the setup data file is loaded. As an example, the data fileshipped with a suite can be modified and shipped on a third partysupplied CD that is loaded first in the installation process. In thiscase, the Setup Manager will load the updated data file containingthird-party product information as part of the startup. Alternatively,third parties can hook in after the suite baseline has been achieved byreplacing/rewriting the scenario data file.

[0052] Turning now to FIGS. 4a-c, the basic flow of a suite setup isillustrated in greater detail. Once started 112, the setup.sdb file isloaded 114 as discussed above. If the setup data file is missing orcannot be loaded, a message box appears and informs the user of theproblem. The suite installation requirements dynamic load libraries(dll) are then loaded 116 if specified, and a check is made 118 todetermine if suite requirements have been met (i.e. RAM, processor,platform, pagefile, etc.). Insufficient suite requirements are reportedto the user 122 via the Welcome screen, or an error is logged 124 andsetup terminates 126 in the unattended case 120.

[0053] A check that the system meets the minimum requirements for thesuite baseline is then performed 128. If the minimum requirements arenot met, this is reported to the user 132. If the setup is unattended134, the error is logged 136 and setup is terminated 126. Setting thecustom property of all required suite baseline components can specifythe suite baseline. This method is used when SIT is installing baselinecomponents. The suite baseline can also be specified in the setup datafile as indicated above. In such a case, SIT handles detection of thebaseline, but the installation of baseline components is done outside ofSIT.

[0054] Generally, suite baselines include OS, SPs, quick fix engineeringor hot fixes (QFEs) (possibly as hidden components), Internet Explorer(IE), etc. The default Welcome page displays information about theuser's machine and suite baseline components required, if any. Then theremainders of default startup screens are displayed 130. Preferably, allscreens are optional, and may include Name/Organization, Password,product identification (PID), end user license agreement (EULA),AutoLogon, etc. Screens can be shown/hidden by adding/deleting the namesof the screens in the [Startup Screens] section of the setup data file.A suite owner or third party can add their own UI at anytime in thissequence, or launch applications and/or processes during this sequence.

[0055] Next, if there are two or more scenarios 138, the scenarioselection screen is displayed 140. This occurs once the suite baselineoptions have been satisfied and the startup screens (if specified), havebeen displayed. The screen displayed is the initial UI page specified inthe scenario data file. On this page, users can choose 142 from a numberof different pre-configured setups, or select Custom Scenario tocompletely customize the component or suite installation. Details ofthis process and the UI provided therefore will be described more fullybelow. If there is only one valid scenario available, that scenario islaunched 144 without first displaying the Scenario Selection page. Thescenario baseline based on the selected scenario is then checked 146.The user is informed 148 if the scenario baseline has not been met. Bydefault, SIT provides the Scenario Baseline page that displays whatcomponents need to be on the user's machine and what components arecurrently installed, similar to the Welcome page used for communicatingsuite baseline requirements. The user can 150 click Next to install 156the scenario baseline components and continue w/installation, clickCancel 152 to exit setup 126, or click Back 154 to select a differentscenario.

[0056] The selected scenario may display a component selection page,such as that illustrated in FIG. 5 (specifically referred to anddescribed below), if users are given the option of selecting/deselectingcomponents and sub components. Briefly, the component selection pagepresents the user with a tree view containing all of the components andtheir sub components. From this view the user may select or deselect acomponent and set its installation directory of any component. Users canalso specify the setup action to be performed on each component or subcomponent (e.g. install, uninstall, add, recovery, no action). Versioninformation and disk space requirements may also be displayed on thispage. As users select and deselect the components or modify installactions on a component, full dependency checking is performed.

[0057] At this point in the setup, any components with additional UIrequirements may present their UI pages 158. The default is to havecustom UI pages for components appear in the order in which thecomponents are listed in Component Selection page, although this may bechanged as desired. Next, an installation summary is provided 160. Allof the options and information the user has selected is displayed forfinal approval 162. Preferably, the user can navigate back to modify anyof his or her selections from this screen.

[0058] Once the setup has been approved 162, the Setup Manager sends 164preinstall message to all components and all sub components as discussedabove. The components have the option of prompting the user if they wantto perform the pre-install action for a component. The suite owner canalso specify pre-install actions by default and suppress user prompt.The Setup Manager then sends 166 an install message to all selectedcomponents and sub components. Next, the Setup Manager sends 168post-install message to all components and sub components. As with thepre-install, the components have the option of prompting user if theywant to perform the post-install action for a component. The suite ownercan also specify post-install actions by default and suppress userprompt.

[0059] During this process, an installation-progress page is provided170. As SIT loops through pre-install components, install components,and post-install components as specified in the [Pre Install Order],[Install Order], and [Post Install Order] sections of the setup datafile, the description text in the header of the progress screen updateswith each change in install stage. This provides an indication of wherein the process SIT is. SIT also adds a link 172 in the Add/Removesection of Control Panel. The name of the link corresponds to the suitename as specified in the [Product Information] section of the setup datafile. Further, any installation errors encountered during the course ofinstallation are logged 174 to a file specified in the [Error Log]section of the setup data file. A finish page is then displayed 176, andSIT writes out an unattend file for the completed setup.

[0060] Each component can launch 178 post-installation wizards orscripts. The suite can also specify a suite-wide wizard or script to berun, which can also be driven via the scenario. Each component may alsospecify an executable to run post-reboot 180. This can also be drivenvia the scenario. After these actions have been taken, as desired, theprocess is complete 182.

[0061] As introduced above, once the user has selected the desired (ordefault) installation scenario, a component selection screen, such asscreen 200 illustrated in FIG. 5, is displayed to the user. This screen200 displays the components of the suite and the available installactions that may be performed thereon in portions 202 and 204 of a listbox. This screen 200 is displayed if users are given the option ofselecting/deselecting components and sub-components. The componentselection screen 200 presents the user with a tree view containing allof the components and their sub-components. From this view, the user mayselect or deselect a component and set its installation directory. Userscan also specify the setup action to be performed on eachcomponent/sub-component (e.g. install, uninstall, add, recovery, noaction, etc.). Version information and disk space requirements may alsobe displayed on this page. As users select and deselect the componentsor modify install actions on a component, full dependency checking isperformed.

[0062] Unlike prior systems of check boxes, the action section 204 ofscreen 200 displays additional information besides simply the check orno-check of these prior system. In the UI of the instant invention, acheck mark 206 is used to signify that the component is installed andthat no action need or will be taken. Additionally, in a preferredembodiment the UI also displays a coloring difference between componentsthat are in the process of installing or are already installed 208versus the components that are set to install but are not installed 210to further distinguish these different states. For a component that isinstalled and the action is not changing 212, the text for the componentname is darker than the other text. Similarly, the text is also darkerfor components that are going to be installed 210, except in these casesthe background behind the action section 204 and the install drivesection 214 is also darker. The components that are not currentlyinstalled and will not be installed 216 are denoted with text that isrelatively lighter than those components 210, 212 described above. Adash 218 is illustrated in the action section 204 for these components216 to illustrate that they are not installed and will not be installed.

[0063] The UI 200 of the instant invention also provides informationregarding the disk space required for the installation of each componentin section 220. As may be seen from an examination of this section, thetext 222 for the components that are already installed 212 and for thecomponents are not going to be installed 216 is relatively lighter thanthe text 224 for those components 210 that are going to be installed. Inthis way, the user may be able to determine if there is adequate spaceremaining for the requested installation. To aid in this determination,the UI 200 also provides a summation of the disk space requirements forthe components requested to be installed 224 and the remaining diskspace 226. Many prior systems could not differentiate between theinstalled applications and the applications to be installed, andtherefore, displayed the total disk requirement of both thesecategories. This resulted in the display of misleading information thatmade it seem that the installation disk space requirements were largerthan actually needed.

[0064] The UI utilizes a directory tree structure to display componentsand their sub-components. As will be recognized, sub-components areindented under and indented from the components from which they depend.The listing may also be expanded or contracted at any level that hassub-components thereunder. For example, in the component area 202, the“Windows 2000 Optional Components” component is expanded to show itsdirect sub-components as indicated by the “−” symbol 228, whereas the“Internet Information Services” sub-component is not expanded asindicated by the “+” symbol 230.

[0065] The UI 200 of the instant invention also displays a pull downarrow 232 in the actions section 204 for user selection of the availableinstall actions. As illustrated in FIG. 6, once the pull down arrow 232is selected, a pull down menu 234 is displayed. This pull down menu 234contains all of the available install actions (results) for thatcomponent. As discussed above, these install actions and their names(based on the state of the component once the actions is performed) aredefined by the components themselves to allow for maximum flexibility.The number of available actions is not limited by the system of theinstant invention, nor is the selection of the action name. Theordering, grouping, and display of the actions' name is, preferably,under the SIT control. In one embodiment, the install actions aregrouped by category, and then alphabetically, although othercategorizations, groupings, and sortings of actions are possible. Also,once selected the entire row of the selected component is preferablyhighlighted for added clarity. The current version 236 of the componentis also illustrated to allow the users to make informed decisions aboutupdating or reinstalling components.

[0066] The actions included in the exemplary pull down menu 234 are None(Installed), which results in the check mark being displayed onceselected, Maintenance, and Remove. If the component were not installed,the option of Install would replace the action Remove. In this way, onlythose actions that are available based on the component state are shownto the user. For components that have sub-components or children, theselection of Install or Remove will signify a default action of Installor Remove for all of the sub-components or children. This default may beindividually changed by expanding the component and individuallyselecting the appropriate or desired action for each sub-component orchild. When such individual control is exercised, the displayed installaction for the parent is preferably changed to Maintenance, althoughother conventions may be adopted in accordance with the above teachingsas desired. If the states of the children are different from the defaultand the tree for the parent is collapsed (so that the individualsub-components are no longer displayed), the action field willpreferably show the action with a “+” symbol, or other symbol todesignate that at least one of sub-components have additional ordifferent actions that will be performed.

[0067] If individual control is exercised on a child or sub-componentsuch that a dependency or other requirement is violated, a screen 238such as that illustrated in FIG. 7 is displayed. This screen 238displays the problem with the current selection, and proposes a solutionto allow the installation to proceed without error in text line 240.Both the component name and the action listed in this text message 240are dynamic and reflect the specific scenario that resulted in thisscreen 238 generation. For example, the screen will propose theinstallation of any required component to satisfy the dependency. Forproblems that cannot be automatically fixed by the SIT, such missinghardware components, a simple text box describing the problem isdisplayed.

[0068] This screen 238 displays all components 242 whose actions areaffected by the proposed change in dark text, and all other,non-affected components 244 in greyed text to show context of theaffected components 242 only. Initially, the component that initiatedthe Dependency dialog (the Transaction Server in this example) isselected as on the Component Selection Screen 200. In this initialstate, the Details button 246 is disabled because no additionalinformation is needed to describe the dependency violation.

[0069] As illustrated in FIG. 8, if a user selects any other componentaffected by the dependency violation, such as highlighted component 248(Outlook Web Access in this example), the Details button 246 is thenenabled. In a preferred embodiment, the component 250 that initiated theDependency dialog screen 238 remains highlighted with a background colorthat maps to the Tooltip color to provide a visual context of theinitiating component.

[0070] Selection of the Details button 246 will display a filtered viewof the Dependency dialog screen 238, such as is illustrated in FIG. 9 byscreen 252. In this filtered view 252, the name of the componentselected in the prior screen 238 is displayed in a text message 254. Asindicated in this text message 254, the change in Action for thiscomponent 248 directly affects the Actions for the below listedcomponent(s) 256. Other components not affected 258 are grayed, andincluded to provide context for the affected component(s) 256.

[0071] To build the component selection screen 200, the SIT of theinstant invention queries each component for a list of the installactions that it can support as discussed above. The SIT then shows thislist to the end-users in the listbox 234, and they are able to selectwhichever install action works best for them. Each install action musthave a “result” associated with it to tell SIT what will happen with thecomponent after the install action has bee completed. Each SIT componentimplements an ISetupComponent interface. This interface exposes a methodto allow another component or manager of SIT to query for a specificinterface. When the ISetuplnstallActionCollection is queried, a list ofthe available actions is returned in the form of one ISetuplnstallActioninterface for each available action.

[0072] This interface exposes several methods. The methodISetuplnstallAction::GetInteger( ) allows the component writer toassociate each action with a unique identifier. This allows the SIT toset an action on a component without needing to rely on the text of thataction. This makes the localization of the SIT easier. The uniqueidentifier also prevents confusion with the SIT if a component hasmultiple install actions that may have the same result. For the examplediscussed above wherein a forklift action is described, its result isinstall, as is the result of the install action. If a unique identifierwere not utilized to differentiate the method from which the result wasobtained, the SIT would not be able to properly persist after a reboot.Therefore, every write and install action has the ability to associate aunique integer with that action that is specific to that component only.The method ISetupInstallAction::GetString( ) retrieves the string thatis displayed to the user when they are selecting which action to chosefor a component. This string is not used in any of the computations inSIT, so it is not required to meet any standard. This also increases theflexibility.

[0073] Since a component can have any number of install actions, thereis a possibility that one of more of the install actions that wouldnormally be available may not be available in a specific case. If thisis true, the ISetupInstallAction::GetProblem( ) action is needed installaction returns information that it has a “problem” being set. Thisproblem is linked to another string that described the problem to auser. An example may be that Microsoft Proxy Server requires an NTFSdrive to install on, and one may not be present on the current machine.Instead of not allowing the user to install proxy without any reasonwhy, the “Install” action will be available for the user to select, andif selected will show an error message related to why it cannot be setto the selected action, in this case the lack of an NTFS drive.

[0074] Although there can be any number of install actions, there is afinite set of “results” that these actions can present. TheISetupInstallAction::GetResult( ) actions allows SIT to act accordinglyon the install action selected by using it's result instead of needingto know specific information about the type of action. There arepreferably four possible install results that an action can have:Installed, Removed, Nothing, or Maintenance. As their names imply,Install signifies that the component is now installed on the machine,Remove signifies that the application is no longer installed on themachine, and Nothing signifies that no action was taken on thecomponent. The Maintenance action is provided to allow a component to donothing but still allow changes to be done to it's sub-components(children).

[0075] All of the references cited herein, including patents, patentapplications, and publications, are hereby incorporated in theirentireties by reference.

[0076] In view of the many possible embodiments to which the principlesof this invention may be applied, it should be recognized that theembodiment described herein with respect to the drawing figures is meantto be illustrative only and should not be taken as limiting the scope ofinvention. For example, those of skill in the art will recognize thatthe elements of the illustrated embodiment shown in software may beimplemented in hardware and vice versa or that the illustratedembodiment can be modified in arrangement and detail without departingfrom the spirit of the invention. Therefore, the invention as describedherein contemplates all such embodiments as may come within the scope ofthe following claims and equivalents thereof.

We claim:
 1. A method in a computer system for displaying on a displaydevice a component install action selection screen for an installationapplication, the installation application adapted to perform installactions for a plurality of constituent components of an applicationprogram suite, comprising the steps of: displaying a first list of theplurality of constituent components; obtaining a second list ofavailable install actions for each of the plurality of constituentcomponents; and displaying one of the available install actions inproximity to each of the plurality of constituent components of thefirst list.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of displaying afirst list of the plurality of constituent components comprises the stepof displaying the first list in a tree structure.
 3. The method of claim2, wherein said step of displaying the first list in a tree structurecomprises the steps of: displaying a first level of components; anddisplaying a tree expansion symbol in proximity to components at thefirst level having at least one sub-component at a second level.
 4. Themethod of claim 3, further comprising the steps of: receiving anindication that a user has selected the tree expansion symbol for one ofthe components a the first level having at least one sub-component at asecond level; displaying the at least one second level sub-component forthe one component; and displaying a tree contraction symbol in proximityto the one component.
 5. A computer-readable medium havingcomputer-executable instructions for performing steps comprising:obtaining a first list of a plurality of constituent components of asuite to be installed; displaying the first list of the plurality ofconstituent components; obtaining a second list of available installactions for each of the plurality of constituent components; anddisplaying one of the available install actions in proximity to each ofthe plurality of constituent components of the first list.